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whoopie slings are all the rage

whoopie slings are all the rage now and being the hammock noob that i am, i have not had the chance to check them out.
but are they any better or more convienant then say the webbing straps that come with many of the popular hammocks; or are they so popular just for their lite weight.

I was all about the whoopie slings too until recently. I had purchased a pair of descender rings a couple years ago and put them on my wife's pink grand trunk. It was just to try out a different suspension. On a whim I put them on my lite owl and have really been diggin it. I can get in between some short spanned trees when options are low.

"He who makes a beast of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man." Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Warbonnet Outdoors offers a straightforward continuous strap suspension as one option. Many enthusiasts prefer it. But, there is a weight penalty, and along with that comes a volume penalty. The Dyneema (Amsteel) in the whoopie is about three times the strength of the polyester in similarly strength-rated polyester.

So, density differences aside, three times the weight means three times the volume packing volume. Less, actually, because 6 feet / 2m would be tree strap included in the continuous strap.

Just note that not all straps are equal. There are some very stretchy nylon ones out there.

I like whoopies for two reasons. One is that they are smaller and lighter than full straps. Two is that they are easier to adjust than straps & rings, for me.

Some complain that whoopies take extra room and require trees to be farther alart. But this isn't so if you use a comtinuois loop of line on the hammock end. If trees are close, simply hang the loop on a Marlin spike in the strap. The whoopie will just dangle freely.